Statutory Safety Representatives and Safety Committees: Legal and Industrial Relations Implications

1982 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.B. Creighton
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
Statutory Provision ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Sufficient Detail ◽  
Structured System ◽  
Safety Committees ◽  
Practical Implications

This article examines the increasingly important issue of the role of statutory safety representatives and safety committees in helping to promote and protect the health, safety and welfare of the Australian workforce. It consists first of an examination of the development of statutory provision in this area in the United Kingdom, culminating in the passing of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the introduction of the far-reaching Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations of 1977. It then describes and analyses the reception of these provisions, and the philosophy which underpins them, in Australia. Thirdly, it attempts to identify and discuss some of the more important legal and practical implications of this kind of statutory provision. There is reason to suppose that some of these issues have not been analysed in sufficient detail in either Britain or Australia, but overall it is clear that a properly structured system of statutory safety representatives/com mittees can play an important and constructive part in helping to promote a proper awareness of health and safety issues in this country.

scholarly journals Heath, Safety and Industrial Relations: A UK Study

1970 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J.W. Leopold ◽  
P.B. Beaumont
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Potential Conflict ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Safety Committee ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Health And Safety Issues

Drawing on a sample of safety committee members in 51 plants in the United Kingdom manufacturing industry, this paper examines 3 aspects of the relationship between unions and management on health and safety issues. The contention that safety is less of an area of conflict than other industrial relations issues is explored. The potential conflict, between efficiency and democracy in the operation of committees, is examined, leading on to an exploration of the relationship between union safety committee members and the shop floor.

The State of Industrial Ill-Health in the United Kingdom

1980 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Charles Clutterbuck
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The State ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Safety Committees ◽  
Area Health

Recent health and safety legislation in the United Kingdom comes at a time of economic crisis. The only way of understanding its impact is to look back at the roles of employers, the State, trade unions, workers, and the medical establishment over the past 150 years since the rise of industrial capital. In many ways, issues that were current at the turn of the century—such as the conflict between profits and health, whether to clean up the production process or insulate workers from its hazards, compensation, and employers' liability—are still very much present today, although these issues are often obscured by the notions that there is an identity of interest between management and workers over health and safety and that profits and safety go together. The role of the trade unions in dealing with existing and new hazards of production has historically been ambiguous, yet the need for them to develop an overall policy of prevention has always been obvious. Although they are now part of the governing apparatus, other arms of the State—in particular the civil service—initiate changes in health and safety organization, while trade unions make sure they are enacted. The development of trade-union area health and safety groups represents the most important potential change and may well provide the necessary focus for information and organization to cut through the “concerned” propaganda from management and its safety committees and start the long-awaited cleanup of industry.

scholarly journals Design for safety in construction in Nigeria: a qualitative inquiry of the critical opportunities

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nnedinma Umeokafor ◽  
Chioma Okoro ◽  
Ikechukwu Diugwu ◽  
Tariq Umar
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Optimum Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Strategic Design ◽  
Design For Safety ◽  
Geographic Differences ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the critical opportunities for design for safety (DFS), the potential statutory (and non-statutory) health and safety (H&S) responsibilities of designers including DFS and its workability in developing countries.Design/methodology/approachInterviews were conducted among 28 multi-designers including Architects, Civil Engineers and Builders and the data was analysed thematically.FindingsThe study revealed that the likelihood of designers, clients, etc. inclining to change because of the infancy stage of H&S in developing countries, making it “fallow” for H&S was a barrier. The opportunities for DFS include the willingness of designers to develop DFS skills and knowledge, which results in a welcoming attitude towards DFS. Further, the success recorded by professional bodies on other regulatory matters and designers' greater inclination to comply with DFS when professional bodies are involved in the regulatory process of DFS remain key opportunities for DFS.Practical implicationsFor statutory-backed DFS to achieve the objective at the optimum level, the role of professional bodies in the regulatory and sensitisation processes, geographic differences in DFS legislation enforcement, nuanced and strategic design and enforcement of any legislation that will support DFS should be taken into consideration.Social implicationsA grassroots collaborative approach to developing and implementing DFS in the country and the exploitation of the zeal of designers to have DFS-related knowledge, is recommended.Originality/valueTo the knowledge of the authors, this is the first study that examines the opportunities for DFS in developing countries when it is (or not) supported by statute and the need to advance the understanding of DFS in developing countries through qualitative enquiry.

Law of lactation breaks in the UK: employers’ perspectives

2018 ◽  
pp. 171-186
Author(s):  
Melanie Fraser
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Infant Feeding ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Returning To Work ◽  
Strategic Leaders ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Health And Safety Issues

This chapter looks into the legal understandings that managers have of lactation breaks. It gives a summary of the key legislation applicable in the United Kingdom and discusses how this is applied within the workplace. The chapter also gives some suggestions for how to improve the legislative backdrop in which women make decisions about their return to work, breastfeeding, and how this process can be better managed by employers. In the project described here, managers, human resources staff, and strategic leaders in a UK public sector organisation were asked about lactation breaks. This investigation shows a real-world context for decision-making around infant feeding. Managers displayed limited knowledge of the legislation and called for goodwill from all parties to resolve issues, better guidance, and perhaps legislation on the topic. There were some hesitancies about allowing a baby to visit the workplace, because of lack of suitable facilities, and health and safety issues. This chapter indicates that better procedures are needed for the process of returning to work as a new parent, and that lactation breaks should be part of that conversation.

Coping with Risk: The Case of Gas Facilities in Scotland

1984 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
D J Snowball ◽  
S M Macgill
Keyword(s):  
Local Authority ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Gas Processing ◽  
Port Authorities ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The World ◽  
Public Interest Groups ◽  
Key Features

Aspects of the publicly acknowledged assessment of risk in siting-decisions in Scotland for potentially hazardous North Sea gas processing-installations are considered. Safety issues were of concern to the respective local authority councils and planning departments, the Health and Safety Executive, the developers seeking planning permission, and, in various instances, port authorities, Secretaries of State, and public-interest groups. The assessment of potential risk to the public by each of these main agencies is analysed and evaluated, illustrating key features from a decade which has seen significant changes in the art of risk assessment in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world, and related, though rather more modest, changes in practice.

Study from Spain shows how clan and adhocracy cultures help to foster the internal CSR practices which improve worker happiness

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Industrial Companies ◽  
Market Culture ◽  
Company Culture ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Employee Happiness

Purpose The authors felt there was a lack of prior evidence about the antecedents of internal CSR and its relationship with employees’ happiness. The study considered the role of organizational culture as a determinant of internal CSR actions. Design/methodology/approach The authors questioned 921 employees of companies from various sectors in Spain. The respondents mainly worked for service and industrial companies with fewer than 50 employees and an annual turnover above 250,000 euros. They were mostly men, mainly well-educated and the average age was 38.5. They were surveyed using a questionnaire with 59 questions assessing internal CSR processes (20 items), organizational culture (24 items) and employee happiness (15 items). Findings The results showed that clan and adhocracy cultures are positively and significantly associated with internal CSR practices. In the case of hierarchy culture, it is positively related to adaptability to change and occupational health and safety. But the results did not support the hypotheses related to market culture as only its relationship with adaptability to change was positive. The data also indicated the significant and positive effect of internal CSR on employee happiness. Originality/value The authors believe their study has implications for practitioners and policymakers. They argue that organizations should try to develop cultures that help to promote internal CSR, which means adhocracy and clan. Meanwhile, there are also practical implications for researchers. First, the model integrates happiness, which is rare in CSR studies. Second, the study addresses a gap in the research about how company culture acts as an antecedent to internal CSR. Third, the study generates knowledge about internal CSR from the perspective of employees.

Unions and Collective Bargaining in 2009

2010 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Brigden
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

With the global financial crisis posing an ongoing threat to job security, more positive experiences of trade unions were often overshadowed in 2009. The passage and commencement of the Fair Work Act finally brought Work Choices to an end, or so it seemed until leadership change in the federal Liberal Party revived debate over individual contracts at the end of the year. The still difficult relationship between the unions and the Rudd federal government was in evidence throughout the year, and was underlined at the ACTU Congress. The return of Telstra and the major banks to the bargaining table with unions demonstrated a significant shift in the collective bargaining and industrial relations landscape in 2009. Occupational health and safety issues confronting unions included further developments concerning James Hardie and asbestos, workplace fatalities in the Pilbara and harmonization of occupational health and safety laws.

Trade Unions and the Effectiveness of Worker Representation in Health and Safety in Britain

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Walters
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Employment Patterns ◽  
Employee Representation ◽  
Supportive Role ◽  
Safety Committees ◽  
National Economies

A feature of British legislation on employee representation in health and safety is its restriction to recognized trade unions. This has made British provisions unique within the European Union. New legislative provisions are under consultation and are likely to widen the existing Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations. The approach of the proposed regulations raises a number of questions about the determinants of effectiveness of worker representation in health and safety that are discussed in this article. The significance of trade union support for representation in health and safety is shown to play an important role in determining the effectiveness of health and safety representatives, both through the role of trade unions within the workplace and through their ability to provide support for representation through training and information. Trends in national economies and employment patterns in Europe mean that trade unions' influence is diminishing, but their supportive role in health and safety representation has not been replaced by any alternative form of employee organization. The proposed new British Regulations are discussed in the light of these observations.

scholarly journals Strategic Management of Health and Safety at Work: Critical Insights for HR Professionals in the Construction Sector

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adel Ali Yassin Alzyoud ◽  
Habil Slade Ogalo
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
The Core ◽  
Human Resource Department ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Health And Safety Issues

The present article aims to underline the role and importance of health and safety in the workplace particularly in the construction sector. The article is posed to shed light and hence, educate professionals working in the construction sector on one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century. The paper outline outline how the sector operates, and the importance of health and safety of employees is in this sector. The paper outlines the various types of hazardous and the acts that could cause health and safety issues for the workers in the construction sector. Following to this, the paper outlines the significant role of human resource department and HR professionals in the sector in this regard. The paper provides an insightful information on some of the core aspects that personnel management professionals in this sector could work on to help avoid any unintended consequences.

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